Adventure Team Challenge

Inclusive Team Challenges for Exceptional Athletes

Changing Lives through Competition and Cooperation

From Colorado to New York, the four Adventure Team Challenges from World T.E.A.M. Sports is a series of outdoor adventure events that bring together teams of athletes with disabilities with able-bodied athletes.

Challenge events are held in Colorado, North Carolina, New York and suburban Washington D.C. For many exceptional athletes with disabilities, participating in a team challenge offers a chance to explore our natural world, from paddling on lakes and rivers to hiking and biking through deep woods to climbing high mountains and jagged rocks. For participating able-bodied athletes and coaches, the Challenges offer a memorable and inspirational experience that will not be forgotten.

Adventure Team Challenge Colorado

Rare in the eastern United States, hand cycles like this one at the Adventure Team Challenge Colorado provide off-road access for wheelchair athletes. Photograph by Brian Gliba.

World T.E.A.M. Sports’ original adventure competition, the Adventure Team Challenge is hosted annually in western Colorado. Every two or three years, the event rotates between sites in Colorado’s high mountain ranges west of Denver to lower altitude high desert locations near the Utah state border west of Grand Junction.

Beginning in 2007 as the Real Deal Inclusive Sports Adventure, the 2018 Adventure Team Challenge will inspire and challenge athletes of all abilities. With each team of five including two athletes with disabilities, one being a wheelchair user, the Challenge encourages competitors to work together toward shared goals and rewards.

In its 12th year of competition, the 2018 Challenge will provide participants with new challenges in the secluded and beautiful granite canyons and peaks of the high Gore Range northwest of Vail. Magnificent high mountain terrain, forbidding canyons, whitewater rivers and inspiring competitors will create an unforgettable experience for all participants.

Participants and staff at the 2014 Adventure Team Challenge New York at the Center for Discovery. Photograph by Melissa Grappone.

Location: Harris, New York

Dates: September, 2018

Years Held: 2010-2018.

Sponsors and Partners: American Portfolios Financial Services, The Center for Discovery.

Developmentally-disabled teens and young adults from New York and New Jersey will join with able-bodied coaches in spirited team competition held in New York’s Catskill Mountains. Sponsored by American Portfolios Financial Services Inc. and The Center for Discovery, this inclusive Challenge will provide an opportunity for these adaptive athletes to solve sporting challenges. Each participating team will work together to successfully complete each stage of the multisport event to cross the finish line together. To be held at the Center for Discovery’s grounds in Harris, New York, the participating teams in the Challenge will include five athletes with disabilities with five to nine able-bodied coaches.

Sponsors and Partners: Dralla Foundation, Best Buddies Capital Region, SUBWAY of the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Edible Arrangements.

Adventure is just outside of the city in World T.E.A.M. Sports’ Adventure Team Challenge Washington D.C. To be hosted at the scenic Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park along the Potomac River, just west of Washington, participating teens are matched with able-bodied athletes. Together, the two-person teams undertake outdoor activities that include canoeing, off-road bicycling and hiking.

A team sets off on their Sunday stage at the 2015 Adventure Team Challenge North Carolina at the U.S. National Whitewater Center. Photograph by Richard Rhinehart.

Location: Western North Carolina

Dates: TBD

Years Held: 2015.

Sponsors and Partners: 2015 – MetLife, American Airlines, American Portfolios Financial Services, TimeCapital. Additional support by George Puskar.

The excitement of World T.E.A.M. Sports’ Adventure Team Challenge in Colorado’s high country comes to the eastern United States with a companion event in North Carolina. Presented by MetLife, and hosted at the 700-acre U.S. National Whitewater Center just west of Charlotte, the Challenge featured thrills and technical challenges for eight disabled and able-bodied military veteran and civilian teams of five athletes each. Participants were challenged by three stages including off-road bicycling, whitewater rafting, zip lines, orienteering and rock climbing.

Directed by the team that manages the Colorado Challenge, the North Carolina Challenge tested the strength and determination of participating athletes and encouraged cooperative teamwork.